Chinese lawyer humiliated by customs at YVR
 

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JANE ARMSTRONG

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

March 19, 2009 at 5:29 AM EDT

VANCOUVER — A Vancouver lawyer with "sterling" credentials said he was handcuffed and detained as he made his way to board a Beijing-bound flight this week after customs officials at Vancouver International Airport accused him of being a human trafficker.

Dongdong Huang, 51, was en route to China after wrapping a court case in Vancouver on behalf of 15 Chinese nationals whose requests for seasonal work visas had been denied. Mr. Huang was seeking a judicial review in Canada for his clients and was carrying their passports.

On Tuesday, he was scheduled to fly to China on a business trip to return the Chinese passports to the Canadian embassy there.

But when he attempted to pass through the international departure gates, a security official searched his carry-on bag and discovered the passports. Mr. Huang said he explained that they were for a court case, but the security official summoned customs officials, who handcuffed him and accused him of being a human smuggler.

Mr. Huang was then led through the departure lounge, his wrists handcuffed behind his back and taken to an interview room, where two officials interrogated him for about an hour.

The march through the departure lounge was humiliating, said Mr. Huang, who has a PhD in law from the University of Ottawa. He practises commercial law from his firm in Port Coquitlam just west of Vancouver. He is also licensed to practice law in China and is a seasonal lecturer at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C.

Mr. Huang said the only reason he took the immigration case was as a favour to some relatives in China.

"I've never been handcuffed before," he said yesterday in an interview at Vancouver International Airport just before his flight, which he was forced to re-book. "I am well known in the Chinese community and this was humiliating to be handcuffed in public.

"As far as I know, it's not an offence to carry passports."

Mr. Huang suspected racism played a factor in the decision to handcuff and detain him. The two Customs officials appeared incredulous when he said he was a lawyer. Mr. Huang has lived in Canada for 25 years but still speaks with a thick accent. Mr. Huang recorded the badge numbers of the officials but they weren't wearing name tags.

As they walked through the departure lounge, Mr. Huang said, one Customs official radioed instructions to have Mr. Huang's baggage removed from his flight.

"You must be involved with human trafficking with so many passports," the Customs official warned him

"I said: 'No, I am a lawyer, I told you.'"

A spokesman for the Canada Border Services Agency said she would look into the incident, but did not return calls later in the day.

Mr. Huang has worked for some of the top law firms in Canada, including Fasken Martineau in Vancouver and Torys in Toronto.

"His credentials are sterling," Vancouver lawyer Bruce McLeod said. "It's quite a shock to hear this. He is a very experienced lawyer and has been practising in B.C. for many years."

Customs officials took Mr. Huang to an interview room, he said, and continued to grill him about the passports. He repeated that he was a lawyer and instructed them to call the lawyer who argued the government side in the visa court case. He also gave them the name of the clerk in the Federal Court registry.

But Mr. Huang didn't know either numbers by heart and he said the Customs officials refused to provide him with a blue pages directory.

At one point, when he asked for a second glass of water, one official replied in a mocking tone, "Say please."

About 40 minutes after he first walked through the security gates, Mr. Huang said he was permitted to search his laptop for the telephone numbers of the government lawyer who was involved in the visa case.

Mr. Huang gave the telephone numbers to one of his interrogators, who called the government lawyer. Another official, who was entering the data of the 15 Chinese passports on a computer, told Mr. Huang he would be released once he finished.

A short time later, he was released. When Mr. Huang complained about his missed flight, the official replied, "It is not our business."

Mr. Huang said he missed client meetings in Beijing that were scheduled for yesterday.

He has written a letter of complaint to the Customs office at the Vancouver International Airport. Mr. Huang said he wants financial compensation for the missed work day and the cost of re-booking his Beijing flight as he was a no-show on Tuesday.

In the written letter of complaint, Mr. Huang also demanded an investigation into the incident and an apology.

"If these Customs officers behave like this to me, how do they behave to other people?" he said as he gathered his belongings before heading to the departure gate. Yesterday, Mr. Huang proceeded through the gates without incident.

A sign on the wall at the international departure gate warns passengers that they may be required to undergo a search.

Like the time I came back from Phoenix with video of the Lightspeed girls, the customs agents accused me of being a disgusting pedo for video taping 20+ year old chicks jumping nude on a trampoline... cock suckers.

if hes a lawyer, doesnt he have a business card to hand to the customs right away?

oh yea, i'm sure customs would have just let him board the plane if he gave them a business card.

made of gold, covered in diamonds and it's owner is allowed 5 free shots at scarlett johansons' box.

atleast they didnt' tase him

poco is west of vancouver?

isn't it east?
lol

I thought it's totally a legal offence to carry other people's passport. At least at a CUSTOMS situation.

He's a lawyer he should know better. Taze him next time.

the article is racist for identifying him as a "chinese" lawyer ;)


this isn't newsworthy unless he is a trafficker

i thought it just identified him as a vancouver lawyer

"Lawyer humiliated" - 'nuff said.

Power trip, seen too many cop movies

i cant believe that this can happen to someone, and that theres nothing he can do about it.

now all you fags are gonna say that "the customs were just doing their job" and shit, but was all the BS neccessary ? all they had to do was make one fone call and everything was cleared up, but instead they had to grill and make a fool out of themselves and then still look like assholes afterwards.

the customs guy wasking fun of the other idiot who asked the US boarder guard to say please, then got pepper sprayed


boo friggen who for this guy, you're a lawyer and you should know better than to carry all these passports expecially if he is innocent.....they must have had some reason to pull him aside, if he is a trafficking people then i hope he goes to jail


and get compensated for his lost day and flight? go screw yourself

I can go to Staples and print out a set of business cards that says I'm a lawyer. I don't actually have to be a lawyer to do that.

yeah, but in the end it's much better this way. The primary purpose of customs is to screen entrants to the country, not as a welcome party to all. It is a hassle, but that's a whole lot better than a lax border security.

Dude, you disapprove the hassle that comes along with customs and border security, yet you approve the hassle of government regulated procreation?

What do you really want? More gov't involvement to individual rights or less. I think you don't realize it but you're a pretty mixed up fellow.

What's the difference between customs and immigration officials in Canada? Or is there no difference?

I dont see why they needed to handcuff him, if he was being cooperative they should have simply walked him to private room for questioning.

Good point but what if it's a procedure. Then 2 points arise.

1. What kind of incident pre-empted to have such a procedure in place?
2. Is it warranted that procedures be altered to the benefit of individual over customs officer?

Dongdong... He's so good they named him twice. I see the racism in this though, it states that he lived here for 25 years but still has a thick accent, I'm somewhat sure that if he didnt have a fobby accent that he would have been treated a LITTLE better.

is it illegal to carry other peoples passport :S?

customs and rcmp are just getting ready for 2010,
tasing and detaining useless people, just kind of practise for them.

i had a chat with customs supervisor once, i asked her, why do customs ask stupid question like, (when returning from korea)

where do u work, how long have u worked? etc etc.
she said, being canadian citizen, u can refuse to ans those question and they have to let u through, but then again, customs have a right to detain and go through ur stuff.

next time, if i dont have anything to declear (ie. food /alc - over limit) im gonna answer,
non of ur business. lets see what happens.

What I think of inappropriate here is the way custom treat people.

Where is the fair treatment? This attitude of guilty until proven otherwise is wrong. It should be the exact opposite. Especially when the person is actually cooperating like this case.

Too many officials like to abuse the power given to them. You could question a person of his actions, but not taking a subjective assumption.

I would assume its not illegal to carry another persons passport through customs, but if this guy had half a brain he would have thought ahead to what it was going to look like. What did he think would happen? You have bunch of passports you are taking out of the country. Would seem a little odd to anyone.

So instead of thinking to himself “Hey, Ill bring along some of the court documentation for what these are actually for, and bring some of the phone numbers I need to have this verified, because walking through customs with 15 passports that are not my own my seem a little strange to officials. Especially seeing as the country I am leaving has some pretty big problems with illegal immigration from the country these passports are from”, he wanders in to customs totally unprepared. Then, after being treated like anyone else who officials are suspicions of (officers often use hand cuffs for both there own and the person in custody’s protection), he draws the race card, and fires up the press.

And us being Canadians, instead of supporting the people who protect our boarders, will cave and say that he should be apologized to. Bullshit.

Of course the next time a bunch of illegal’s are in the country, we will be screaming at the boarder agency’s asking why they didn’t do more……..

Moot point. That standard only applies to courtroom.

Otherwise, customs officers cannot function in their duties to screen, and police officers cannot intrude one's rights based on suspicous activity.

Even think of random road checks for DUI and etc. It was once considered an intrusion to one's rights.

Guy shouldn't've been trafficking humans.